Comments on Apoquel : Dog Drug With a Dark Side - Homeopath Vet

(Please read til the end. The absolute lesson is there.)
My service dog, Lady, an all-black German Shepherd Dog, has had ear infections since I adopted her at two years old in 2012. a year or so later, she developed skin irritation due to parasites. So, the combination was making her miserable. Our vet tried a lot of things trying to keep the toxicity down to minimum but wasn't working well.
In 2016, we then got sent to a dermatologist who recommended Apoquel. Yeah, WOW! Within 30 minutes all itching stopped and the healing of the skin begins.
But, within 5 months of moderate use, Lady developed lymphoma. Sudden kinda onset. Glands the size of walnuts, weakness, pain...The works. Immediately got her into oncology. Started VELCAP-L (5-drug combination chemotherapy regimen (vincristine, L-asparaginase [l-spars], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, prednisone)).
Complete diet change. She had been on raw, BARF/formula combo, since two years old.
BE CAREFUL! In the first two weeks with the predisone, it increased her appetite in voracity. She ate four polyester knee socks and half a pajama bottoms. Vomited all but one sock. Back into the hospital, no food, only IV fluids and encouragement and lotsa walking to pass it. After three days, it finally did. Lucky girl, no surgery. BE CAREFUL!!!!
Took three months to stabilize her gut. Took her for acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Helped a whole lot and with reducing toxicity of the chemotherapy. I am a firm believer in this.
Six months later, first week of 2017, oncologists gave her "remission" status and in March 2017 "full remission" status.
If I didn't take out pet insurance, I would've only be able to afford just the predisone and L-spars which would have reduced all the symptoms and possible remission but life expectancy would have been 9-12 months. The insurance paid for 80% without any question. No issues. It's all reimbursement but doing it with a credit card really works in this case. I highly suggest it.
Read up on pet insurance with Dr Doug Kenny petinsuranceguideus.com/
Overall, if you must use Apoquel, only use for a couple of weeks and no more than a month. Our experience was to adjust to raw diet with expert nutritionist, cleaning house and bedding regularly, regular Kelco Bubble Neem flea shampoo, acupuncture and herbal remedies. It can be some work but better than poisoning and harming your family members.

My sweet boxer Daisy turns 5 in 10 days. She has had allergies for virtually her entire life, and we have tried a variety of diet changes and treatments. She got a prednisone shot in May, and it lasted about 3 weeks. A clerk at the vets office said they could give us "something" in a pill form, and it would last longer and has proven to be very effective. It's a very good vet practice, so we trusted them completely.
On June 23, I began to give her the "pill". It was apoquel. Within a week, the lymph nodes under her jaw began to swell. Took her to the vet the next week, and the needle aspiration was inconclusive. It turns out her lymph nodes were swollen behind her legs as well. They did a biopsy, and we were informed today that she has lymphoma. She also defecated pure blood today.
I asked the vet, "did apoquel expedite the cancer that was in her body"? He said "yes", because it compromised her immune system and allowed the cancer to take over.
Who knows how long it would have been before the cancer took over her body? The apoquel robbed us from time with her, and robbed her from a longer life. I do not recommend this medication to anyone.
We're so sad.

Dr.,
About 3 and a half years ago, when Apoquel was first released, our vet prescribed this for our 12 year old Yorkie Poodle and our 10 year old Beagle.
A year and a half later, our Yorkie Poo had clustered skin lesions everywhere and our Beagle had developed a tumor on her spleen that metastized to her spinal cord. We decided then to put her down.
A year after that, we finally stopped Apoquel for the YP and his lesions cleared up quickly.
Our new male beagle gained 15 pounds while on Apoquel.
Today we are preparing to put our YP down due to a large abdominal tumor and after six months off Apoquel and on a weight loss diet, our male Beagle has lost no weight. We fear that an x-ray next week may reveal a third dog with an internal tumor.
Three dogs on Apoquel. Two tumors, maybe three.
This drug should be pulled from the market or include a short term usage only warning.

My boy Nicko has SEVERE ALLERGIES and his Dr recommend Apoquel. After some persuasion I caved and agreed to try it. After one month being on it clumps of his hair was falling out. More than what he should. I phoned the vet and they were like oh it is not from the Apoquel. I was yeah it is. I took him off and he stopped immediately

Thank you for this article! My Lab was just prescribed a week's worth of this for a spot on his muzzle (I think it's a spider bite, but the only photo online that looks like it was -supposedly- of an MCT). I haven't heard of this drug, so researched it before deciding whether to administer it. Whether it's a bite or an MCT, I don't really want his immune system messed with! Itching isn't really the primary concern. She also prescribed a week of antibiotics. Still on the fence about those. It has been less than a week, though. I'll be perusing your site for the next several days. Thanks again!

my brussels griffon has been on apoquel since the first month it was out in the U.S.. i believe it was january, 2014. he was 12 at the time, he will be turning 16 this august. he had spent 10 of those 12 years scratching. i tried otc/prescription/herbal/etc on him and nothing helped. he would be worse march thru october but with warmer winters it was pretty much year round. he is on a raw diet, has been since he was 6 months old. i did elimination diets with him to make sure it was not his food causing the issues. it was not. was he over vaccinated? it's possible but he has not had a vaccination since he was 7 yrs old. he would scratch himself raw, get staph infections on his skin, lick his paws for hours. he was miserable. from the first dose of apoquel he stopped scratching. he has been on it since and has had no side effects that i can see/tell. there is an injectable allergy medication now that lasts 4 - 12 weeks, depending on the dog/case. it is from the same company as apoquel. i might try that but apoquel has always worked for buddy. so, if others have issues with it, i'm sorry, but mine doesn't and he will get it or the new injectable until the day he dies. and frankly, i think 16 or whenever is a damn good life span for a dog. none of us are going to live forever and i sure the hell don't want to spend my life scratching holes into myself, why would my dog want to live like that either. no one lives forever as i said, i want my time here spent feeling good, not feeling like crap.

I put my dogs on Apoquel only for about 6 months out of theyear and I live in Florida, their allergies are worse in the summer with all the itching and scratching. My dog has allergies to begin with and all the research I have done points to what you feed them. If you feed them crap as in corn based foods they have problems. At least mine do. I feed them holistic food and make them food also. (One of my dogs is diabetic) Look for a recipe called Ruby Stewbie, it is awesome and dogs love it.
I have no issues with using Apoquel and I have been giving it to them for 4 years, but like I said only for about 6 months out of the year.
People don't believe everything you read on the internet, do your own due diligence for your dog.

I gave my Schipperke Apoquel for 45 days. Now I am currently in the process of getting blood work and test down to figure out what is wrong with him. His platelets are very low, close to danger. The vet is very sure that it is an autoimmune disease. Had that test done and it came back negative, but he still insist that is what it is, says that these tests are not conclusive. Wants to do a series of high dose steroids, which I am completely against. After reading this article I see that it is an immunosuppressant and that a side effect is suppression of bone marrow. Well that would cause the RBC and platelets to be low. So what do I do to get him back to normal levels.
Thanks, Denise

I just started my 2 y/o golden retriever on Apoquel and stopped giving it to him after the second day when he began having diarrhea and vomiting. He experienced the vomiting occasionally over a 3 day period, however, were on day 5 of diarrhea, minimal drinking and no eating. I thought at first he got into something he shouldn't have, but after reading more into this drug, I'm convinced it's the culprit.

I have a shepherd/husky who is on Apoquel for his seasonal allergies. He starts late Spring and stops when we get the first snow fall. It is amazing. He had blood test done 2 weeks after he first started to check his white blood count, and all was good. He experiences no side effects, and all his issues have cleared up. He no longer gets hot spots, his anal glands don't get infected, and he no longer scratches. I'm sure dogs who have underlying conditions causing these problems might experience side effects, but for plain allergies with yearly vet checks I don't see why people should steer clear of this. I have some friends who have had their dogs on this for longer than mine and year round and they've not had problems either. Must be luck of the draw, like with heartworm/flea/tick preventatives. Some dogs get sick and some die, while others are on them for a lifetime and never have an issue.

It is drama and fear-inducing ridiculous sites like this that create the false and misleading world of "Dr.Google" for pet parents and is truly a travesty. You play a terrible role in misleading people without medical background to take out-of-context excerpts of stories and explanations that prevent pets from getting the help they need. I could list 3 TIMES as many testimonials about pets that have terrible side effects from other allergy treatments then found Apoquel and are safe and life changing. 3 TIMES as many!!. This is the same theme of every other Dr.Google scare where a pet dies but got Frontline 8 months ago so that must be a "dog killer", and other internet posts that scare people out of things that actually do help pets. Just disregard the fact that pets could get sick and die or get cancer from something concurrent and unrelated and blame it on big pharma. Every drug has benefits and potential risks. Compare this drug's safety studies to others and its MUCH safer than steroids?!! Why don't you post a blog about steroids killing pets then? You are a shame to responsible pet care and should be kicked off the internet or at least give an unbiased whole story type of assessment of medications.

It seems to me that if you are feeding a good, raw, fresh, healthy diet, with natural supplements, not vaccinating but getting titers instead and not using chemical pest control that working on healing the immune system in dogs who have had a rough life, as many of our rescue dogs have, makes the most sense for curing many diseases. I go to a homeopathic doc and I know that can work, but I also get lots of advice about keeping my immune system healthy with good food, exercise, fresh air - everything our dogs need, too. My vets have some alternative modalities, but when ever they suggest the typical western medicine drugs or treatment, I always look for a safer, more effective cure. I applaud your work Dr. Falconer, and your willingness to share your knowledge. Thank you!

Brought my 14 years old dog Godot to the vet for treatment of mild contact allergic dermatitis on his back paws : he been chewing them constantly.
Last year the shot of cortisone did the trick without any side-effects.
This year vet was suggesting Apoquel aas a wonder-no-side-effects-ever drug.
I feel so angry for myself that I did not insist on the last year remedy and agreed to that!
After I gave just 1 tablet to my old Godot in 4 hour he developed belly pain and gas, diarrhea- he never ever had before.
I called vet's office to inform them what is going on and they even didn't tell me to bring my dog for exam!
They didn't care! They even didn't propose to take my dog to ER that day!
I boiled 1 cap of white rice with 3 caps of water as it was always helping him on the rare case of diarrhea: it didn't help.
Puppy was still extremely uncomfortable, in pain, lot of gas, constantly asking to get outside.
In the next 36 hours it was all the same and I called the vet's office once again and only than they told me to take dog to ER " or he may not survive"!
I took Godot to ER and he was treated about few hours with IV solution, antibiotic against infections, painkiller, anti-gas, anti-diarrhea and vomiting, etc, etc.
The bill was $ 800.
My dog is home for now but I am not sure that I would not need to come to ER once again as he does not look like he totally recovered.
I hope for better though.
But I would write a latter of complaint about the vet who promotes dangerous drug and his office which does not care of their customer of 14 years.

Dr. Falconer, how can we make legislation pass something to the effect that veterinarians have to tell you the side effects of the drugs they give to our dogs and that they provide printed information about the drug . Aside from poisonous Apoquel I have found horror stories about flea pills , like when you type Nexgard reviews on Google, veterinarians are telling us flea pills are safe and they are killing dogs and cats this way too.

I found this page because my dog is on apoquel. He is 9.5 years old, and has had severe allergies for the entire 4.5 years I've had him. Sometimes his reactions require bringing him to the ER, but most of the time it's his skin, eyes, ears, licking, and scratching.
I've managed his allergies for years by switching foods and finding one that works. Everything clears up but then eventually it comes back. I never wanted to put him on meds for the rest of his life. This last time so much hair fell out and his eyes by the tear stains kept bleeding. He is an American bulldog. So I gave in and asked the vet for help and they prescribed apoquel. They said it has basically no side effects and will clear everything up!
After 2 weeks he looked amazing. All of his hair was growing back, bloody tear stains were now soft new fur. I went back to buy a 30 day supply.
Now after almost 30 more days, I'm noticing him eating more. He's never been overweight, and in fact it's very hard to get him to eat enough sometimes to keep weight on him. He's still not overweight, he looks good, but he's heavier than he's ever been and is eating 8 cups of food a day plus a whole can of wet food. I think he will be overweight if he keeps eating like this, which isn't normal for him. At first I was happy because after an intestinal blockage surgery 2 years ago, he never fully regained his weight. But this is so sudden it doesn't seem right. Now his nose is dried out, but he's still drinking a lot of water as he always has. So I see things changing and decided to check up on the side effects myself. On top of that, his tear stains and raw skin by his eyes has returned. Not as bad, but I see the drug isn't helping as much as it was in the beginning.
After reading several sites talking about the dangers of this drug, I'm going to take him off of it. This is the dog of a lifetime for me, he is so important to me, and I can't risk hurting his immune system. I hope I can help his allergies naturally.

My dog is currently on apoquel for about 7 months, and about 3 weeks ago had what our vet called a yeast infection on her stomach. She had sores with puss. Vet put her on oral ketoconazole and a clotrimazole/chlorhexadine shampoo. Fixed the symptoms but now I think I know what caused the ailment after reading here. She also has had black crusty spots on her belly. Time for her to stop the apoquel and go on a raw diet and get off the prescription grain diet that is not working. Nearest holistic vet is about and hour away and it may be time for my 7 year old Lab to go there. Her major problem is her right eye waters constantly and she does scratch some when not taking the apoquel.
Great information here. Thanks Dr. Falconer glad I found this site.

Sure it's a harsh drug, but I'm not sure everybody here is really grasping the magnitude of some dogs' allergies. Some of us have literally tried everything else and when your dog has been in absolute hell for months or years - think: cannot walk, eat or pee without pain - then it's time to try something more drastic. Food allergies are not the issue here - they're easy to avoid. But if your dog is allergic to just about every damn plant, dust, dander, and a dozen other environmental allergens, there's honestly not much that you can do. Apoquel should be used with caution as a last resort, but it works for some dogs.

My English bulldog has been on this med for a couple months. The skin and yeast allergies have now been under control. However, she has been in "heat" shortly after we started. A nasty smelling, bloody discharge for weeks. Talked to the vet about this causing the problem. She said no. And I could get meds to make the "heat" stop. Told me to call back in a few days if it didn't get better. She stopped. Now about 2 weeks later we are at it again. Had discussed spaying to see if that would help. At this point she seem hesitate to spay her due to her breed and age. Still wondering if this med is to blame as we had no problems before?

If you look up Apoquel (oclacitinib) on drugs.com you will find everything there is to know about this poison. My sweet angel was killed by a veterinarian at VCA Brentwood animal hospital, she prescribed Apoquel 5.4 mg, 1 pill every 12 hours for 10 days and 1 pill every day thereafter, I just trusted her, never in million years was I going to think that she gave him poison. I usually look up medicines on internet for any side effects and this time I did not do it right away. I did later and I only read the first page that by the way was an ad from Zoetis , and they only list vomiting, diarrhea and gastrointestinal problems, I did not dig deeper like I did when it was too late. He finished the pills and as soon as he did he started to become sick, he vomited once and no more, that is why I did not get alarmed, then he lost appetite, but he would get out of it, he would not eat one day, the following he did. I noticed his stomach trembling but then it would stop, so again, I did not get alarmed, days went by he would not cry, so I did not get the signal that anything was wrong. He always wanted to go for his walk, but the last two days of his life he was walking very slowly (I had already called the two vets that saw him about it and they did not tell me to bring him for a check up) These vets are just telling you to look for vomiting or diarrhea, and the side effects are so much more, like the one he developed, which is a mass near his heart coming from the spleen, his stomach got enlarged and he was bleeding from that mass because it erupted and blood was all over his lungs, I am so mad at myself that I could not stop this tragedy by not looking up this drug on the first day, to really researched the side effects, I am so mad that I could not protect him, I could not save him, I trusted this unethical veterinarian with the life of my precious sweet angel. I am devastated, I think Im going next, this pain is so terrible, he did not deserve all that pain they put him through, he did not deserve to die that way. Stay away from Apoquel, from CADI injections, yes , that vet had the nerve to still try to sell cadi injection when I called her to tell her he was not improving and I asked for something more natural. I have reported it to ASPCA, Zoetis, and FDA, But the FDA is just a mafia, I do not even think they will take it off the market unless there is a huge lawsuit against them. Apoquel is poison, pure poison, shame on Zoetis, shame on the FDA, shame on Dr. Kim Carvalho and Dr. Martin at VCA Brentwood animal hospital, shame on any veterinarian killing dogs for pure profit.

My 10.5 yo lab/dalmation mix has had skin allergies and severe hotspots for the last several years. We've changed her food to eliminate grains/gluten and that helped a little, but putting her on Apoquel for the last month has been a game changer. She has never had vaccinations and at her age and now that her hot spots are healed, we will continue with a daily 1/2 dose of Apoquel so she can be a happy and energetic dog with a good quality of life with the years she has left.